PORTO VECCHIO, Corsica (AP) — The Tour de France begins Saturday. Five things to know:
1. THE TOUR TURNS 100: The Tour, which began in 1903, celebrates its 100th edition this year. (The race wasn't held for a total of 11 years during and around the time of the two world wars.) This edition takes riders over 2,110 miles before the July 21 finish in Paris. The festivities begin Saturday in Corsica with an airborne display by military stunt pilots before the 198 competitors set off from Porto Vecchio to Bastia for a mostly flat stage that's likely to end with a bunch-sprint finish. That's if breakaway riders don't make their mark first.
2. CORSICAN DRUTHERS: The race is visiting Corsica for the first time. The rugged Mediterranean island is known as France's "isle of beauty" and boasts sandy beaches, white cliffs, jagged ochre-colored rock formations and forests of wild olive trees. Politically, Corsica has a nationalist streak: Low-level violence targeting symbols of the French state has been going on for years, often carried out at night — apparently to avoid casualties.
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